Italy have to start beating the best, says captain Lamaro / Photo: Sameer AL-DOUMY - AFP
Italy have to start beating the best, says captain Lamaro
Captain Michele Lamaro said on Friday that if Italy really want to be competitive in the Six Nations, they have to start beating the best teams.
Italy have been playing international matches since 1929 and joined the Six Nations in 2000,. They are considered a Tier 1 nation and play most of their games against teams in the world's top 10, but they have never beaten either England or New Zealand.
They may have their best chance yet to end their England hoodoo in the Six Nations on Saturday, the teams' 33rd meeting.
Lamaro wants his team to learn from the experience of Argentina to take the next step in their progress.
Argentina only joined the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship in 2012 and beat South Africa for the first time in 2015 and New Zealand for the first time in 2020.
"If you want to get to the point where you believe you can be competitive against the best teams in the world, you have to start winning against those teams at a point," the back row forward said.
"I'm thinking of Argentina. For example, in the last couple of years the improvement they did.
"What really put the mark on that was the away game against the All Blacks where they won for the first time."
Argentina have now beaten the All Blacks in four of their last 12 meetings, after only one draw from the first 29.
Italy have impressed in this year's tournament but after a narrow 18-15 victory over Scotland, they lost away to Ireland (20-13) and France (33-8).
They are level with England on five points from their three matches.
The Azzurri have never finished above fourth in the Six Nations -- and that only twice -- and have never yet won more than two of their five matches.
With a trip to Wales -- who are on a 14-match losing run in the competition -- on the final weekend, they face the realistic prospect of potentially ending this campaign with three wins for the first time.
But they would have to beat England to do so.
"We want to be competitive in the whole tournament... that's the first objective," Lamaro added.
"We know we have the confidence to say that if we play our best game we can put England under pressure, and sometimes we can score tries from that.
"But at the same time we know we have to be at 100 per cent in most occasions of the game because these teams are pretty ruthless."
N.M.Shaw--EWJ
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